Jill (Edna Best) and Bob (Leslie Banks) Lawrence are on vacation in Switzerland with their daughter, Betty (Nova Pilbeam). Jill, a sharpshooter, is there to participate in a competition. While celebrating after the event, their friend Louis Bernard (Pierre Fresnay) is shot while dancing with Jill. He quickly reveals that he is a spy and instructs her to get to his room and retrieve something from a brush. Louis hope they can reach the British Consulate and stop an assassination attempt. Bob and Jill do get the information before anyone else, but in retaliation, their daughter, Betty, is kidnapped by the would-be assassins.
The assassins are led by Abbott (Peter Lorre) and Ramon (Frank Vosper), who was the sharpshooter competing against Jill in the opening scenes. Bob and Jill learn the location and date of the assassination attempt, but Bob is detained by the bad guys. Jill, alone, goes on to the concert at the Albert Hall where the assassination will be attempted of a diplomat during a crescendo in the performance. Can she stop the assassination and still save her daughter?
The 1934 version of The Man Who Knew Too Much was Alfred Hitchcock's first American film. It marked the transition between his early work and the films in which he has more freedom to follow his own creative direction. Outside of the credits, there is only source music in this film. Meaning, the music we hear in the film is music being played and heard in the scene by the characters. It's not added over the top for suspense, it is played within the film.
Alfred Hitchcock's cameo in The Man Who Knew Too Much appears 33 minutes into the picture. He is walking across the road in a dark trench coat as a bus passes.
